SHILLONG, March 10: The Meghalaya government has collected revenue of Rs 754.06 crore from major minerals in 2019-2022.
Informing this during the Question Hour of the Budge Session on Thursday, Cabinet Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar said that the state government will share 75 per cent of revenue from coal while the autonomous district councils (ADCs) will share 25 per cent. The revenue share of the ADCs during 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 is Rs 174.63 crore.
Dhar informed the House that Rs 209.39 crore is the total amount of revenue share released to the ADCs, while Rs 21.01 crore remains pending.
He added that Rs 2 crore is yet to be paid to the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council and Rs 18.18 crore to Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council. However, an advance payment of Rs 55 crore was made to Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, the minister informed.
All India Trinamool Congress MLA from Rangsakona, Zenith Sangma, had raised this query during the Question Hour.
To another query of Rangsakona Sangma on when would the pending payments be released to the GHADC, Dhar said that all the dues to the ADC are under process with the Finance department and will be cleared as soon as they are complete.
Asked for a tentative date, Dhar said that it would be cleared at the earliest.
It is worth mentioning that the GHADC employees have been without salaries for a long time.
